VietNamNet Bridge – Parents think that teachers deliberately ask students to solve difficult math questions to force them to go to their private tutoring classes. Meanwhile, teachers believe that it is the parents who, for their appearances, force children to work hard.

Parents complain that math questions have become more and more intricate. Meanwhile, they don’t think their children would become mathematicians or mathematical geniuses.

“I know why teachers like giving difficult math questions,” said Hoang Anh, a parent in Dong Da district in Hanoi.

“They try to make students and their parents puzzled with the difficult math questions. As students cannot solve the questions, they would have to go to the extra classes run by the teachers,” Anh explained.

“Only in extra classes, will the teachers give the explanations how to solve the questions. If your child doesn’t go to the classes, he will not be able to solve the questions,” she continued. “Extra classes are the main source of income of teachers.”

Nguyen Dung, another parent in Dong Da district, also said that his son goes to school in the morning and to the private tutoring class run by the same teacher in the afternoon.

“I am afraid that if he does not attend the private tutoring class, he would lag behind the classmates, because the teacher would only give the answers to math questions in tutoring class,” he said.

Do Chau, a university lecturer, believes there’s no need to ask primary school students to solve intricate questions.

“Difficult questions should be given only to excellent students. Meanwhile, I don’t think my child would become a math professor like Ngo Bao Chau (a worldwide Vietnamese famous mathematician, who has got the Fields medal – reporter),” Chau said.

He believes that the math questions are so difficult that even the teachers cannot solve them.

“They cannot solve the questions themselves. I think they find the keys in the teachers’ books,” he said.

However, Chau, who heavily criticizes teachers for their “unfair play,” still decided to send his child to a private tutoring class, because this is the “best choice.”

“Both my wife and I cannot arrange time to help my child at his study. Therefore, I’d rather to bring him to the tutoring class,” Chau said.

While parents complain that teachers deliberately make things difficult for students, teachers say it is the parents, who have to take responsibility for the children’s hard working.

Pham Hong Vinh, a parent, said when parents cannot solve math questions, this does not mean that the questions are too difficult.

“You’ll be able to solve the questions easily, if you try to solve them with diagrams, a math solving method for primary school students,” Vinh explained.

Vinh’s daughter, Hong Hanh, a fifth grader, also said she just needs to learn basic rules and formulas to solve the questions.

Meanwhile, a primary school teacher said in principle, difficult questions are designed only for excellent students. However, parents themselves all want their children to solve the difficult questions.

“They want their children to do better than other students and can do difficult questions,” the teacher said. “All of them suffer from the so called “achievement disease.” They only want the marks 9 or 10 for their children’s school works.”

Nguyen Thao